The Vatican recognized the state of Palestine during May 2015. During May 2020, the Holy See reaffirmed its support of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and respect for the borders internationally recognized before 1967.
In a July 2020 statement, released in response to possible Israeli action to annex Palestinian territories, the Holy See reiterated that Israel and the State of Palestine "have the right to exist and to live in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders."
Then-US president Donald Trump and Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2020 proposed a two-state peace plan for Israel and Palestine, which included an independent Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Trump insisted that Jerusalem would also remain "Israel's undivided- very important- undivided capital." The United States moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2017.
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Under the plan, none of Jerusalem's Old City or territory within the current security wall would be ceded to the Palestinian state. The agreement also preserves the status quo policy regarding control of various religious sites, including the site of the Temple Mount and Al Aqsa Mosque, and, under the proposal, Muslims would still have access to the site.
Trump's proposal for peace called for the creation of a Palestinian state, but gave Israel sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank. The Palestinians reject this.
Palestinian leaders, the United Nations, and European and Arab countries oppose unilateral action from Israel and consider Israeli settlements on land captured in 1967 to be illegal, Reuters reports. Israelis who back annexation cite biblical, historical, and political roots in the West Bank territory.
The plan also proposes the construction of a "West Bank-Gaza Tunnel" to connect the two halves of Palestine, and that a third of the Gaza Strip be designated as a "high-tech manufacturing industrial zone."
As part of the plan, Trump also pledged money to the Palestinian state for job creation and poverty reduction. Trump said that if Abbas and the Palestinian Authority "choose the path to peace," that the United States and other countries "will be there, we will be there to help you in so many different ways."
Newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden is likely to reverse some of Trump's policies in the Middle East, pledging as a candidate to restore humanitarian aid to Palestinians and opposing Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, NPR reports.